Teen pleads not guilty in fatal car crash

18-year-old faces charges in Juvenile Court for crash

Erin Limonchi (left) and David Kennedy, children of Pamela Sue Marabeas, place flowers at a memorial on Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010, along Mission Gorge Road at State Route 125 in Santee where she was killed in a car crash last September. With them is family friend Patricia Henares.
— Eduardo Contreras / Union-Tribune

Erin Limonchi (left) and David Kennedy, children of Pamela Sue Marabeas, place flowers at a memorial on Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010, along Mission Gorge Road at State Route 125 in Santee where she was killed in a car crash last September. With them is family friend Patricia Henares.
— Eduardo Contreras / Union-Tribune

A teenager accused in a DUI crash that killed a Santee woman last year pleaded not guilty to several charges in Juvenile Court yesterday and was placed under house arrest.

The 18-year-old, who was 17 at the time of the crash, was charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, car theft, hit-and-run causing injury, hit-and-run causing property damage and driving without a license, said prosecutor Lisa Moffatt.

The girl’s name is being withheld because she is being tried as a minor.

Prosecutors say the teen was driving a black Ford Ranger north on state Route 125 about 6:30 a.m. Sept. 20 when she came off the freeway at Mission Gorge Road and broadsided 53-year-old Pamela Marabeas, who was sitting in her Ford Explorer about to make a left turn onto the highway.

The impact sent both vehicles across the road and over the curb onto an embankment, the same spot where three weeks earlier California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor and his family were killed after crashing in a runaway Lexus.

Marabeas, who was a full-time radiology technician at Scripps Mercy Hospital in Chula Vista, was on her way to work at her second job at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center, where she had volunteered to fill in at the last minute. She died at the scene.

The teen driver was critically injured and hospitalized for some time.

Just minutes before the fatal collision, which sheriff’s deputies that day described as “horrendous,” the girl had been involved in a hit-and-run crash in La Mesa, officials said. In that crash, 21-year-old Taya Chase was driving a Chevrolet Cavalier that was rear-ended, forcing her car off the road and onto a sidewalk, where it crashed into three utility boxes and a fence. Chase said at the time she thought the truck was traveling about 70 mph.

Moffatt asked Judge Dwayne K. Moring to place the girl into Juvenile Hall and said she posed a threat to the public now that she was out of the hospital.

“We need to ensure she cannot have access to a car and get behind the wheel again,“ Moffatt said.

Defense attorney Mark Chambers said that all the keys to the vehicles at her home where she lives with her parents are in a safe and the girl does not have access.

Chambers said the girl suffered brain damage, memory loss and partial loss of sight in her left eye in the crash. Chambers said she has a metal plate in her skull held by screws, has undergone facial reconstructive surgery and extensive physical therapy. He said she has no memory of anything that happened after the collision.

Moring ordered that the girl be kept under home supervision while awaiting trial and must be accompanied by her parents, a sister or her attorney anytime she leaves her home.

He also ordered her to not drive and to abstain from drugs or alcohol. When asked if she understood, the girl said, “Yes.”

The judge also said placing her in custody remained an option.

The teen’s next court appearance was set for Feb. 23.

If convicted of all charges, the girl could face a maximum sentence of 11 years and six months in custody, Moffatt said. That could include home supervision, home supervision with an electronic tracking device, time in Juvenile Hall or in various camp programs, the prosecutor said.

The girl is being tried as a minor because gross vehicular manslaughter by a minor is not a crime that can be charged as an adult under state law.

That is something that Marabeas’ daughter, Erin Limonchi, is working to get changed. Limonchi met with county Supervisor Dianne Jacob and also has a meeting scheduled with District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis.

On Sunday, Limonchi, 26, and her younger brother, David Kennedy, 24, as well as other family members and Taya Chase gathered at the crash site where they placed a handmade white cross and surrounded it with bright yellow sunflowers and other flowers.

Limonchi said it was poignant to do it the day before the court hearing.

Limonchi said her mother would be so upset that she was missing out on life.

“She loved it,” Limonchi said. “She soaked it up.”

Kennedy said he sees the crash site every day as he drives to work, although some days he can’t bear it and takes an alternate route. He also said he saw his mother’s crumpled SUV being towed the day of the crash.

“I think about her every day, sometimes every hour,” he said.

Though the wreckage has long since been cleared, the family found a memento of Marabeas at the site — a small blue metal X-ray tag from her job that had her initials on it.